It analyzes websites that you visit and helps detect if there are any viruses, spyware, malware, or other online threats.

Based on the analysis, Norton Safe Web provides safety ratings for websites, before you visit them.

Now, Norton Safe Web has new features to help protect in new ways. Read on to learn more.

Norton Safe Web browser extension

Should you use the Norton Safe Web browser extension? Yes!

Not everyone likes browser extensions, and some can feel unnecessary or intrusive. However, there is one browser extension that is very important to help protect you on the Web, and that is the Norton Safe Web extension.

Norton plans with device security include the Norton Safe Web browser extension. If you are a current customer and you have not enabled the Norton Safe Web extension, you may see a warning in red in the Norton desktop app along with a notification to enable the SafeWeb extension.

Why use Norton Safe Web

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The Web is full of useful and entertaining websites that we use every day. The Web also has many sites that contain online threats like malware or spyware.

The cyberthreat landscape has changed, and there are new cyberthreats that specifically affect web browsers. We have added new features to help combat these new types of cyberthreats.

How can you enjoy the myriad of information that the Web has to offer while avoiding some of the risks?

Norton Safe Web enables you to do both.

Changes to the cyberthreat landscape

Many of us who use a PC spend a significant amount of time in a web browser, so it makes sense that cybercriminals would attack the browser itself.

Threats can lie in malicious websites, legitimate websites that have been compromised and malicious advertisements (called “malvertisements”).

Norton Device Security and the Norton Safe Web browser extension work together to help protect against many types of threats that you may encounter online, in your web browser or otherwise.

Newer cyberthreat types that we help protect against include cryptojacking, formjacking, and fake tech support:

Cryptojacking:

With this type of cyberattack, a cybercriminal is trying to steal your computer’s processing power to “mine” cryptocurrency and make themselves money, while slowing down your browsing experience.

Formjacking:

With this type of cyberattack, a cybercriminal manages to compromise an online retailer by injecting malicious code into the checkout forms to steal credit card information.

Tech Support Scams:

With this type of cyberattack, a website will simply pop up a message saying something scary like, “Your computer is infected!” when it is not. These pop-ups can look legitimate, and many people fall for these scams and get tricked into paying the tech support scammer for a “fix”.

In order to better protect your devices against the cyberthreats we’ve just described and many others, it is very important to install the Norton Safe Web extension.

Norton Safe Web features

Because the cyberthreat landscape continues to change and evolve, we have updated Norton Safe Web to provide even more features to help protect your devices and personal information they store even better than before:

Website ratings

Protection against phishing and scam sites

Online Banking Protection New

Intrusion Protection System (IPS) Scanning New

Link Guard New

Isolation for suspicious sites New

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Norton Safe Web feature: Website ratings

Websites may be easy to create, but not all are made the same with regard to their security.

Legitimate websites can be targeted by cybercriminals, older websites that are no longer managed may not be properly supported with good security, and some websites are built specifically to spread malware.

Online
banking threats (such as banking Trojans) can infect computers and
mobile devices alike, and can be used to steal bank log-in credentials.

Norton
customers have told us that they want extra peace of mind when they are
performing financial transactions online, so we have added the Online
Banking Protection feature in Norton Safe Web.

With Online
Banking Protection, Norton Safe Web automatically detects when you visit
a banking site, and then it launches the banking session in an isolated
and protected mode.

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NEW

Norton Safe Web feature: Intrusion Protection System (IPS)

The Norton Intrusion Protection System (IPS) is now available in web browsers (Microsoft Edge®, ChromeTM, and FireFoxTM) as part of the Norton Safe Web browser extension.

IPS plays a critical role in filling holes created by bugs in operating systems, browsers and applications. IPS detects and helps stop exploitations of security vulnerabilities.

IPS has been a part of Norton Device Security solutions for some time, but now that it is also a part of the Norton Safe Web browser extension, the content of suspicious web pages, advertisements and popups are now cross-examined in an additional way, giving you even more protection when you browse the Web.

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NEW

Norton Safe Web feature:
Link Guard

Webmail and social media are great tools for keeping in touch with friends and family, but unfortunately, they can also contain phishing attacks.

In a phishing attack, cybercriminals lure you to click a link or download an attachment, often in a message that seems to be coming from someone you already know and trust.

When you see an email with links urging you to open or download, it can be difficult to know if the link is really from a friend, or is leading to compromised sites or to run malware once you click.

Our team has taken the guesswork out: Now, Norton Safe Web will scan webmail and feeds for links and mark them with red if the link is likely to be suspicious or malicious.

NEW

Norton Safe Web feature: Isolation for suspicious sites

Norton Safe Web warns you of websites that may be suspicious. Sometimes after seeing the warning, our customers still want to visit the site.

To help protect your devices in this scenario, Norton Safe Web in conjunction with Norton Device Security solutions (such as Norton 360 solutions) enable you to visit the site in an isolated environment.

To do this, we use a virtualization technology that isolates the link you are about to visit, and the actual navigation to the suspicious link is done on a Norton server, rather than on your own computer. It’s like visiting the site in a quarantined environment.

To use this isolation technology, you’ll need both the Norton Safe Web extension and a current subscription to a Norton Device Security solution.

Because the Norton Safe Web browser extension is so important to helping protect your web browsing, we have a notification in red for current customers with device security, saying to enable it.

While we want all users to use the extension, we have added the ability to snooze or disable the red state warning to get back to the green state, even if you choose not to use the Norton Safe Web browser extension.

Any time you add additional security there can be a slight performance tradeoff. We do extensive testing to optimize the performance to make it as minimally noticeable as we can, but if you encounter an issue related to performance, please let us know and we can try to reproduce the issue and work to fix it.

With security technology, sometimes you can get “false positives,” meaning that a “good” site is shown as “bad” or “unsafe.” We monitor false positives carefully, and work to fix them quickly as we are alerted to them. Using our Isolation Mode, you can still visit sites that are marked “unsafe” if you choose, and the site will run in an isolated environment that we provide, which helps protect your devices from potential threats that may exist on that site.

Norton Isolation Mode uses Web Isolation technology to provide an additional layer of security when you use certain sites. Norton Isolation Mode enables you to connect to the site you want to visit via a Norton server in the cloud. It’s like using a remote desktop to another computer: You connect to Norton Isolation Mode, Norton Isolation Mode connects to the site, and that way Norton takes the risk so you don’t have to.

Whether you have the Norton Safe Web browser extension installed and active or not, if you have a Norton Device Security solution installed on your device, you are already receiving multiple layers of protection against a wide variety of cyberthreats.

Installing the Norton Safe Web extension gives you even more protection by enabling you to take advantage of the new features described above.